SUBSCRIBE:

New legislation makes it easier to ban NGO work in Azerbaijan

Share

Demonstrators gather in the capital of Azerbaijan to protest the re-election of President Ilham Aliyev, 12 October 2013.

AP Photo/Aziz Karimov

As fears grow about further steps to repress civil society in Azerbaijan, the Council of Europe should publicly condemn the new legislation and make clear that such policy is a setback for human rights, said the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) on 6 February 2014.

The Venice Commission has acknowledged that Azerbaijan's 2009 and 2011 NGO legislations “unfortunately overturn the previous efforts to meet with the requirements of international standards”, but – as yet another draconian passage is signed into law – the Council of Europe's institutions should go further and be more forceful in their condemnation.

Instead of heeding the Venice Commission's opinion regarding Azerbaijan's NGO legislation, Azerbaijan's rubber-stamp parliament, dominated by ruling party MPs, introduced the new legislation, placing additional restrictions on independent NGOs and damaging the country's image on the eve of its chairmanship of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers.

On 3 February, Azerbaijan's president signed the amendments into law.

The new legislation provides authorities with additional triggers for the temporary suspension and permanent banning of national and foreign NGOs in Azerbaijan. The amendments introduce new offences punishable by fines, which have now increased to 2500-3000 AZN approximately (2600- 3100 EUR) for NGOs and between 1000-2000 AZN (approximately 1000- 2100 EUR) for directors of national and foreign NGOs. The amendments also introduce additional administrative requirements and increased checks.

IRFS reminds that one day before the adoption of the amendments by parliament, police in Baku arrested Anar Mammadli, chairman of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre (EMDSC), a leading independent election monitoring group in Azerbaijan that has been observing elections in the country for more than 12 years. The same day, a court sent Mammadli to pretrial custody for three months while he is being investigated on charges of tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship, and abuse of office.

"The Council of Europe should show Azerbaijan's civil society that it is firmly on their side and will not turn [a] blind eye to the introduction of new laws that suppress the fundamental freedoms necessary for the functioning of a healthy civil society", said Emin Huseynov, IRFS CEO and Chairman.

The latest amendments are a blatant violation of article 58 of the Azerbaijani Constitution (freedom of association), article 11 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Right and Fundamental Freedoms (freedom of assembly and association), article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (freedom of association), and article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (freedom of assembly and association).

By virtue of Article 151 of the Constitution, international agreements binding Azerbaijan prevail over domestic legislation, with the exception of the Constitution itself and acts accepted by way of referendum. Thus, in the case of a conflict between the provisions of the ICCPR or the ECHR and the provisions of any of the laws regulating NGOs, the former shall prevail.

The IRFS strongly denounces the use of laws as a mechanism of pressure on NGOs and calls on the Azerbaijani government to repeal the recent reactionary amendments to guarantee freedom of association which is one of the fundamental rights and enable conditions conducive to the development of civil society.

Azerbaijan will take over the rotating chairmanship of the Europe's top human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe in May 2014. Bodies like the Council of Europe must help safeguard people's fundamental rights before it's too late. To this end, IRFS calls on the Council of Europe to condemn the violation of the provisions of the European Convention, and namely Article 10 (freedom of expression) and Article 11 (freedom of association and assembly) and demand that Azerbaijan complies with its commitments and obligations as a member state of the Council of Europe. It is the Council of Europe's credibility which is on the line.

More from Azerbaijan

Rasim Aliyev, an independent reporter and acting chair of the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS), died in August after being severely beaten; it remained unclear at year’s end whether the assailants’ motive was connected to Aliyev’s journalistic work.

The current document is a preliminary version of the groundbreaking review of the implementation of the Council of Europe commitments vis-à-vis fundamental freedoms in Azerbaijan. The final version of the report will be launched in October, during fourth session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

After already cracking down on freedom of information in recent years, President Erdoğan has taken advantage of the abortive coup d’état and the state of emergency in effect since 20 July to silence many more of his media critics, not only Gülen movement media and journalists but also, to a lesser extent, Kurdish, secularist and left-wing media.

This publication presents the findings of the media development assessment in Mongolia that began in 2012 to determine the state of the media in the country. The assessment was based on the UNESCO/IPDC Media Development Indicators (MDIs), an internationally recognized analytical tool used to provide detailed overviews of national media landscapes and related media development priorities.

“After the initial optimism during the Euromaidan movement, many journalists have become disillusioned. They are faced with the triple challenge of the war in the Eastern part of the country, the economic crisis and the digitalization of mass media.”

An officer of the Myanmar army recently filed a criminal complaint against two journalists for allegedly sowing disunity among the military. Even though mediation by the Press Council caused the military to withdraw the case, this incident demonstrates how the military continues to throw its weight to get back at what it perceives as negative publicity.

The government uses draconian laws such as the sedition provisions of the penal code, the criminal defamation law, and laws dealing with hate speech to silence dissent. These laws are vaguely worded, overly broad, and prone to misuse, and have been repeatedly used for political purposes against critics at the national and state level.

In recent years, the space afforded to civil society to operate freely has been shrinking dramatically across the world, presenting a serious threat to democracy and human rights. Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) have been especially badly affected by this shrinking political space.

The report is a frank assessment of the recent regime of online censorship and mass surveillance against a backdrop of longstanding, serious abuses of the judicial process and attacks on freedom of expression by Turkish authorities.

The report surveys the rocky landscape for media and public discourse since the ruling military junta lifted the curtain on the southeast Asian nation in 2012 after five decades of isolation from the modern world.

With the environment now recognized as a major challenge for humankind, Reporters Without Borders believes that particular attention should be paid to the journalists who take greats risk to investigate sensitive, environment-related subjects. The report highlights a steady deterioration in the situation for environmental reporters, who are increasingly exposed to many kinds of pressure, threats and violence.

The Pakistani government has significantly expanded its communication interception activities. This Privacy International report covers the intelligence services plan to capture all IP-traffic in Pakistan and other initiatives, pointing to gaps in the laws governing surveillance.

The need to regulate the transfer of surveillance technologies that pose a risk to human rights has been largely recognised by EU institutions and some EU member states. It is no longer a question of if the EU should do more in this area, but how.

Defamation and insult remain criminal offences in Portugal punishable by up to two years behind bars despite the fact that a number of international human rights bodies have found criminal defamation to be a disproportionate restriction on freedom of expression.

Despite its Constitutional commitment to free speech, India’s legal system makes it surprisingly easy to silence others. Routine corruption, inefficiency, and the selective enforcement of vague and overbroad laws allow individuals, or small groups, to censor opinions they find distasteful. - See more at: http://www.pen-international.org/the-india-report-executive-summary-and-key-findings/#sthash.TIIM2xbu.dpuf

Press freedom in the Philippines continued to be under attack from 2014 to 2015. The killing of journalists is continuing, with four journalists killed from May 2014 to May 2015. The trial of the accused masterminds of the Ampatuan (Maguindanao) Massacre and their supposed henchmen is continuing, but with a primary accused was released, while a witness in the same case was killed.

The year 2014 saw Malaysians standing up to exercise the rights guaranteed under the Federal Constitution, including freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. This continues a growing trend of facing up to state oppression. Unfortunately, this has been met with increasing repression. Malaysia has seen a concerted crackdown on the freedom of expression in the year 2014, which has escalated even further in 2015.

IFEX publishes original and member-produced free expression news and reports. Some member content has been edited by IFEX. We invite you to contact [email protected] to request permission to reproduce or republish in whole or in part content from this site.